The complete guide to alumni engagement and management software

The basics

What is alumni management software?

As an alumni relations professional, you’re undoubtedly all too familiar with the complexities of engaging a diverse, global alumni network.

Alumni management software like Hivebrite is designed to address these challenges to streamline and enhance your alumni engagement efforts.

In a nutshell, alumni management software is a comprehensive digital platform that helps educational institutions bring their alumni home, empowering them to connect with each other and the institution.

It’s a centralized system that combines database management, communication tools, analytics, and more to support your engagement goals.

What are the key benefits of alumni management software?

Alumni management software is a game changer when it comes to engaging alumni and supporting your institution’s goals.

Let’s dive deep into some of the key advantages.

Impactful communication

The software streamlines communication effectively by enabling targeted, personalized outreach based on alumni interests and history. Automated communication workflows for events, campaigns, and updates, along with multi-channel options such as email, SMS, and social media integration, ensure that engagement efforts are both efficient and impactful.

Personalization

Alumni management software helps educational institutions with personalization by offering customizable features that cater to the specific needs and preferences of their community. Institutions can tailor the platform’s interface, content, and communication strategies to match their unique branding and goals, ensuring a cohesive user experience.

Deeper engagement

The software provides user-friendly online platforms for alumni to connect and network, along with easy-to-use event management tools for both virtual and in-person gatherings. Self-service portals empower alumni to update their information and preferences, share news, and more—fostering a more engaged community.

Improved fundraising outcome

The software enhances fundraising efforts by identifying and nurturing potential donors. It allows for the tracking of giving history and preferences and supports multi-channel fundraising campaigns, leading to more effective donor engagement and contributions.

Career services enhancement

Integrated job boards and career resources are part of the software’s offering, facilitating mentorship programs and providing alumni-to-student and alumni-to-alumni networking opportunities. This enhances career services and strengthens the support network for both current students and alumni. For schools with different resources/personnel, Hivebrite supports both admin-driven and end-user-driven models.

Efficient event management

The software streamlines the planning and promotion of alumni events, offering online registration and payment processing. It also provides post-event follow-up and engagement tracking tools, ensuring well-organized and successful events.

Data-driven decision making

Comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities provide insights into engagement levels and trends, enabling institutions to make informed decisions. The ability to measure ROI on alumni initiatives further supports strategic planning and resource allocation.

Resource optimization

By automating routine tasks, alumni management platforms amplify the efforts of staff and empower volunteers by combining enabling technologies with appropriate controls.

Improved compliance

The software ensures better adherence to data protection regulations, such as GDPR, and simplifies the management of communication preferences and opt-outs, maintaining compliance and safeguarding alumni data.

Support for institutional goals

The software enhances alumni involvement in student recruitment and curriculum development by providing community engagement tools, event management, and mentorship programs. This strengthens the alumni community and positively contributes to the institution’s reputation. Additionally, volunteer management features enable institutions to efficiently organize and track alumni participation.

Scalability

As alumni networks grow, the software allows for efficient management without a proportional increase in staff. It supports expanding engagement initiatives and programs, seamlessly accommodating institutional growth.

Integration capabilities

Integration with other institutional systems, such as CRM and student information systems, provides a holistic view of constituent relationships. This offers opportunities for process automation, reduction of errors and inefficiencies, and improved data quality and recency.

Enhanced data management

Data quality and recency are continuous, top-of-mind challenges. Alumni management software offers a centralized, up-to-date database that ensures improved data accuracy and completeness. This allows institutions to easily track alumni career progression and achievements, making it a vital resource for maintaining comprehensive records.

Do all higher education networks need a community platform?

Not all higher education networks necessarily need a community platform, but having one can offer significant benefits and enhance the overall experience for students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

The need for a community platform depends on the specific goals and needs of the institution, but customizability of platform’s like Hivebrite ensure that it can provide value to both small and large institutions. Even smaller schools with tight budgets can benefit by utilizing features like a CMS for their website, a first-class directory with a map, broadcast email capabilities, and event management, all without needing complex data integrations or group functionalities. Ultimately, the decision should be based on whether the platform aligns with the institution’s strategic goals and can provide measurable value, with flexibility for any size or structure of the organization.

Choosing the right community platform for your higher education alumni group

Must have features

When considering an alumni management platform, several must-have features can greatly enhance the experience for both administrators and alumni users. Here are some key features to look for:

1. Member directory: A searchable and filterable directory that allows alumni to find and connect with each other easily.
2. Group feature: Options for creating groups or sub-communities based on chapter, location, demographics, field of study, interests, etc.
3. Event management: Tools to create, promote, and manage events, including RSVP tracking, ticketing, and integration with calendars.
4. Communication tools: Email marketing, newsletters, and notification systems to engage and inform alumni.
5. Networking opportunities: Features facilitating professional networking, such as mentorship programs, job boards, and forums.
6. Content management: The ability to share news, articles, and updates with the alumni community through blogs, newsfeeds, or announcements.
7. Donation management: Tools to manage fundraising campaigns, donations, and donor engagement.
8. Analytics and reporting: Insights into engagement metrics, event attendance, and other key performance indicators.
9. Mobile accessibility: A mobile-friendly interface or app to ensure alumni can access the platform on the go.
10. Customizable profiles: Allowing alumni to update their personal and professional information, preferences, and privacy settings.

Other considerations for your alumni management software

Customization options

Your platform should allow you to reinforce your institution’s brand identity. The best alumni management software will enable you to customize your community to mirror your brand identity and values. It will also standardize branding for classes, clubs, chapters, and affinity groups across your online community.

Integration capabilities

A robust alumni management platform should readily integrate with other systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, student information systems, and other software. This integration ensures a unified data flow, allowing institutions to maintain a comprehensive view of alumni relationships. For instance, syncing with a CRM can provide valuable insights into alumni engagement, while integration with other software can streamline donation tracking and reporting processes, enabling more efficient and targeted fundraising efforts.

Privacy and security

Protecting alumni data is paramount, and a reliable platform must incorporate strong data protection measures to safeguard sensitive information. This includes compliance with regulations such as GDPR or CCPA, ensuring that alumni data is handled with utmost care and transparency. Features like data encryption, secure login protocols, and regular security audits are essential to maintain the trust of the alumni community. Hivebrite holds prestigious security certifications, including world-renowned ISO 27001, PCI-DSS v4.0, and TX-Ramp.

Expert opinions

We spoke to Ria Kapluck, Senior Customer Success Manager at Hivebrite, to learn more about key considerations when choosing your alumni management software. With 15 years of experience in higher education and over a decade of experience in alumni engagement, Ria Kapluck leads customer success for Hivebrite’s education clients in the U.S.

What are the most important things to consider when you’re selecting an online alumni engagement platform?

That’s a great question. An online community is an extension of the engagement work you do every day; it’s not separate from it, and it’s essential to incorporate an online community into your overall engagement strategy.

Before you dive headlong into evaluating platform features and capabilities, you must first understand your alumni’s specific needs. What types of engagement opportunities and resources are most relevant and valuable to them? Are they looking for networking opportunities, career and continuing education resources, mentorship programs, alumni club memberships, special events, and giving opportunities? Once you can answer those questions confidently, you can start looking at what’s available in the market. And if you can’t answer that question, ask your alumni! Engage in conversations, conduct surveys, and gather feedback to identify the areas where alumni want to engage. By understanding their needs, you can select a platform that addresses them effectively, and your alumni feel valued and engaged.

I’ve done my homework and know what my alumni are looking for. What should I be looking for in an online engagement platform?

You need to keep two important groups of people in mind when evaluating platforms: your end-users and your admins. What does the user experience look like? Is it intuitive and easy to navigate? Can they find what they need? And most importantly, will it keep them coming back? For admins, is configuring the community and creating content easy and straightforward enough for even a non-technical person to manage the community?

With regard to specific features & functionality of the platform, look for a platform that serves the needs of your alumni. Typically, that’s going to include things like searchable alumni directories, job boards, event registration, discussion forums, interest & affinity groups, email campaigns, fundraising tools, and mentoring tools. It should be scalable and flexible enough to grow alongside your engagement strategy and accommodate growing users and higher engagement levels without compromising performance. It should also offer customization options and data integration capabilities with other systems like SalesForce and Advance.

How important is mobile-friendliness when selecting an online alumni engagement platform?

Incredibly important! We’ve all gone to websites on our phones that haven’t been optimized for mobile, and not only is that frustrating, but we’re also unlikely to return to that website in the future. A responsive platform that adapts well to various screen sizes ensures that alumni can conveniently engage with the community from their smartphones or tablets. If you have a dedicated, custom-branded mobile app, giving your alumni a seamless and user-friendly experience is even easier.

What about analytics and reporting capabilities? How important are those when selecting an online alumni engagement platform?

Understanding how your users engage and interact with your platform is a huge key to success. Having insights into the effectiveness of your alumni engagement efforts helps make data-driven decisions for future engagement strategies and really refine your alumni’s experience. It’s essential, then, that the online engagement platform offers robust analytics and reporting features to ensure organizations can continually assess and optimize their alumni engagement efforts.

Can you speak to support capabilities for online alumni engagement platforms?

It’s so important to partner with a company that provides support for their platform, as well as expertise in community management strategies. Ensure that customer support is easily accessible and available and that they provide comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and user forums where you can find answers to common questions. For example, at Hivebrite, we provide our clients with a wide range of webinars, blogs, and articles, as well as a private community with exclusive content led by our Head of Community, Morgan Wood.

How can integration capabilities impact the selection of an online alumni engagement platform?

University relations teams often use a variety of tools and systems for alumni-related activities, especially CRM and fundraising tools like SalesForce or Ellucian’s CRM Advance, so it’s crucial to find an online engagement platform that can integrate easily with other systems to ensure seamless data flow and streamlined operations. For example, integrating the alumni engagement platform with a CRM system can effectively manage alumni data and facilitate targeted communication, ensuring a cohesive and integrated approach to alumni engagement.

Any closing thoughts on the importance of this choice?

Selecting the right online alumni engagement platform is crucial for creating a thriving alumni community. Remember, a well-chosen platform can empower your alumni, foster meaningful connections, and drive the success of your alumni engagement efforts.

Director of Alumni Engagement Resources

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How Hivebrite unlocks higher education alumni networks

Hivebrite helps higher education institutions enhance alumni relations by offering a centralized platform that streamlines communication and engagement. It provides tools for organizing events, managing volunteer opportunities, and facilitating mentorship programs, to strengthen alumni connections with both the institution and current students.